In the meantime Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, the brilliant and
successful French engineer, having completed the Suez Canal, turned his
attention to the Isthmian country. After a thorough investigation of
all the possible routes, through a series of negotiations, he succeeded
in securing a franchise from the Republic of Colombia, giving him
authority to organize a French company and the right to construct a
canal between the little city of Aspinwall (now known as Colon) on the
eastern side, and the City of Panama on the Western side.
So great was the popularity of de Lesseps that he had no difficulty in
forming a strong company in France. The stocks offered to the French
public were subscribed for rapidly. The French are a frugal people, and
even the poorest of the French peasants and working men have always a
little hoard of savings. The French people had such confidence in de
Lesseps’ ability to complete successfully his great American enterprise
that the first issue of his stocks were taken almost at par.